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Monday, October 6, 2008

Amazing Race 13: Episode Two

This leg of the race was rather easy as teams only traveled within Brazil. If you missed the show, you can find RealityNewsOnline's detailed recap here.

Episode two was all about brains vs. brawn vs beauty. Which attribute would be the most important? Mark and Bill, the obvious brains in the bunch, really stood out on this leg of the race. They began by choosing a detour task that played to their strengths. They were asked to find a warehouse container using a computer database to find a code and searching the warehouse facility for the container matching that code. This was one of those tasks that seemed like a needle in a haystack, which may have been why other teams avoided it, but this team's attention to detail and sharp eyes made them come out ahead of everyone else.

That brings us to brawn. The other detour option was strength based. Teams were required to use logs to roll a boat along a sandy area until they reached the water's edge and could be launch their vessel. For the physically fit, this was the obvious choice. Most teams didn't seem to have much problem with it.

Unfortunately, Sarah and Terence made a costly error after quickly completing the task when they were unable to find the provided transportation to the next stop on the race. As team after team passed by them, they frittered away their lead and could have dropped to last place if not for the assistance of mother and son team, Toni and Dallas, who told them where the taxis were. Terence and Sarah simply needed to pay more attention to the directions - a recurring theme of the episode.

Which brings us to our two beauty teams: Divorcees Kelly and Christy and Blonde Belles Brooke and Marisa. Kelly and Christy made two strategic errors. First they misread the instructions at the boat detour task and thought they needed to receive a container. When they didn't get it from the locals, they started desperately digging in the sand next to a race flag. Oh dear...Fortunately they eventually gave up on this and proceeded on to the taxi stand. Having read the clue during the ride, they should have remembered to ask their taxi driver to wait for them while they completed their next task. Oops - in the excitement of the moment, they forgot. When the taxi driver pulled away the ladies freaked. Luckily for them, the taxi driver actually stayed in the parking area with the other taxis. Of course, the women didn't realize this for quite awhile and wasted time trying to hail another taxi. Sigh...

Blonde Belles Marisa and Brooke told the camera that they want us to know that Southern beauties aren't stupid but then conceded they may be "a little slow." Smart women everywhere rolled their eyes. The ladies initially chose the detour option that Mark and Bill did. But they neglected to pay attention to the signage when directing their driver and they ended up at the physical task. This cost them as they are not (again in their own words) "strong" and they ended up in the back of the pack headed towards the roadblock task.

This challenge involved looking at a wall with many words in Portugese written on it and determining which words revealed the next destination on the race. Bill went to the head of the class when he figured out the best approach would be to write all the words down and read them aloud to the local until the right location was spoken. This worked! Mark and Bill would have come in first place for that but unfortunately, Tina noticed what Bill was doing, copied his strategy, and she and Ken pulled it out ahead of them by just a few seconds. Team Brains were very gracious at the mat which made me respect them even more. Eventually the other teams all figured out this same strategy and arrived at the Pit Stop.

The last team to arrive was Anthony and Stephanie. It wasn't much as a surprise as they had received a "loser's edit" throughout the show. The two came on the race hoping to win money so they could get married. Traveling through Brazil showed them how much they already have to be grateful for in comparison to others less fortunate. It really is eye opening to see how others on this planet live and that's one of the reasons I enjoy watching this show.

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